“When I was little,” Chuck said, “I noticed I couldn’t run as well as the other kids. I tried, but I couldn’t keep up.” Eventually, Chuck learned why. He has muscular dystrophy, a progressive muscle weakening.

Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a group of nine neuromuscular diseases. This means it is related both to the nervous system and to the muscles. About 250,000 people in the United States have muscular dystrophy.

The most common is called myotonic dystrophy, also known as Steinert’s disease. It affects both children and adults and progresses slowly from the first signs of weakness to marked deficiency.

The most common muscular dystrophy affecting children is a severe form called Duchenne dystrophy. Usually diagnosed before age 5, Duchenne affects mostly boys. A child with this disorder is often described as especially clumsy and slow to …

Whether or not you have your driver’s license, certain situations can develop that can be hazardous even when the car you are in is NOT moving. A dead battery, blown tire, overheated engine, or the aftermath of an accident all can be hazardous if not handled properly. Read the following scenarios and see if you can list the proper procedures for each.

Battery Blues

It’s cold and getting dark as you leave school and head for the parking lot to meet a friend for a ride home. After you get in, your friend turns the key to start the car and nothing happens. After two more attempts and a check of the gearshift lever, you both conclude the battery is dead. “Oh great, now what?” you ask. Just then you spot Jan. She has her father’s car and possibly …

You and your friend are hungrily studying the snack section at the local grocery store. There are at least a dozen different brands of potato chips and popcorn from which to choose. You know what you should be looking for: things like low calories, low fat, low cholesterol, and so on. You find a brand that looks good, and to your delight it’s labeled natural, or even better, organic. You’re sold! This has to be the best choice, right? Well, maybe.

In most states, the terms natural and organic currently have no precise legal definition. In common usage, however, natural refers to foods that have undergone little if any processing. Organic is a term applied to foods grown without the use of manufactured fertilizers or pesticides and processed without the use of chemical additives.

What do Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jordan all have in common (besides having tons of money)? Several times a week, they all work out using progressive resistance training. Or to use the more popular terminology, they “pump iron.”

Weight training (also called body-building) is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States. Fifteen or 20 years ago, weight lifting was seen as an activity that produced uncoordinated, muscle-bound men with no necks and with thighs the size of tree trunks. Although these monster men were acknowledged as strong, they weren’t necessarily considered fit, well-conditioned athletes.

Today, the stereotype of a body-builder as a muscle-bound, inflexible hulk is disappearing. Serious athletes in every sport and millions of Americans who just want to get in shape include weight training as a part of their total fitness program.

IRS tax help is always there to assist individuals who are faced with tax issues. Basically, it is a responsibility for everyone to file a federal tax return. Failure to do so can be costly because the government may impose criminal or civil sanctions. People who have this case often seek the assistance of IRS agents to clearly identify their lapses. However, to make the consultation easier, IRS tax help is now available offline or online. There are a number of great services that have tax assistance agents who offer help. The government website of IRS is also a good medium to seek for assistance so there is no reason why an individual cannot defend himself/herself in the court.

Taxes are our duties as citizens but if you cannot file a tax return, you will be faced with different consequences. …

While business is robust globally, in some countries, such as Russia, Mexico and Singapore, finding people to successfully lead the marketing mission is mired in cultural difficulties.

“If we place an American in an international environment, what they find is that they’ve been relying on their own intuitions in the markets. [U.S.] intuition is not going to serve me in China,” says Chris van Someren, managing director at New York-based Korn/Ferry International, the world’s largest search consultancy.

Cultural intricacies

In marketing, intuition and a deep understanding of cultural intricacies play important roles in how products will go over in business-to-business and consumer markets.

For instance, a cosmetics marketer uses her cultural intuition by knowing what colors are popular and what national stars are wearing these days. “Most clients think that we can train [marketing executives] over time, but it’s

(Ok, folks, this is a real article. From 1998. Which is pretty hilarious. Wow were we ever flush back around the tech bubble!)

The median price for building a marketing-oriented Web site has increased by as much as 78% since October 1997, with costs for putting a small company on the Web jumping the most, according to Business Marketing’s latest national survey of Web developers.

Rates for midsize and large marketers have posted more modest median hikes of 20% and 10%, respectively.

The median price nationally for a simple Web site has jumped from $25,000 eight months ago to $44,500 today. (For details on survey methodology, see Page 28.)

Sophistication grows

More functional, medium-level sites rose in price from $83,000 to $99,750, while the largest sites, which had been dropping in price, reversed that trend and saw prices increase for

An internship can either be the best experience for marketing students – or a summer in hell.

Take, for example, the intern who spent his time couriering photos from office to office by bicycle and fetching lunch for co-workers. Or the student who was ignored and unassigned during a six-week internship at a busy corporate marketing department.

As former interns and professionals who run internship programs will tell you, the key to a successful internship program for all involved is an organized experience with planned, hands-on marketing tasks in addition to the ubiquitous grunt work.

“The program should be something structured, with projects that are thought about ahead of time,” says Susan Tull, assistant director of the Haas School of Business at the University of California of Berkeley.

The get-it-now promise of the Internet is pushing publishers to re-engineer their circulation fulfillment processes as more subscription orders pour in from the Web.

“Web consumers are developing certain expectations of the fulfillment relationship,” says Steve Sutton, who is group circulation director for Ziff-Davis’ Yahoo! Internet Life, PC Computing and Internet Computing and is in charge of online subscription marketing for all of Ziff-Davis’ paid circulation titles.

Dad and his two sons couldn’t stand it anymore. Out of the house and into the car they went, off to one of the world’s most famous hamburger happy places. Once up to the menu speaker, the boys blared out their requests. The world seemed like a better place as Dad drove up to the drive-through window.

What happened next, though, was unexpected. A huge rat darted onto the driveway, its steely eyes glaring into the headlights. Still, even one of America’s most beloved brands deserves a break, the startled father thought. He told the assistant night manager what had happened. “Yeah, I know,” came his reply. “Customers tell me all the time. But by the time I come out, it’s gone.”

Company should know better

Meanwhile, the family, their appetites pretty much gone, sat squirming in the car waiting